Browsing Posts tagged pretty reckless

Having started a new job where I had been working 58 hours a week in the building it was good to get some time off and the opportunity arose to get on the guest list for the stone sour gig at the birmingham arena which I jumped at to get some R&R as well as do something with my time off.

The opening act were the pretty reckless who I had not had the opportunity to hear before, so I was pleasantly suprised by the act coming out strong with some good tunes, the act did start with what can only be described as the lead singer’s sex noises climbing to climax before they came on, and the sexualisation continued in the music and the singers actions on the stage but this lead to a heated performance which the audience loved.

The music continued to be varied and keep up the pace which many of the warm up acts I’ve experienced before in the years of gig’s I’ve worked at often fail to maintain especially when coming out strong but these guys managed to do it and warm up the audience immediately.

When stone sour themselves came on stage they came out just as strong keeping the audience entertained without too long of a wait between setup. They played newer songs followed by some of the old favourites all of the crowd new encouraging people to join in singing along.

The usual crowd shennanigans were going on from the crush at the front to people trying to start up moshpits, albeit right next to the front which of course failed because it’s impossible to start a pit in the middle of the crush. I pointed out to those attempting to do so they’d have better luck doing so further back so they headed back and of course were successful in making one causing a wave of people to wash past. In the past I have allowed myself to be carried by the crowd however after an incident at download festival I now hold myself steady and unmoving when these waves pass and attempt to stop it entirely. The incident I speak of is when I was at the front crush maybe 3 rows from the front and a large fast wave hit suddenly knocking everyone sideways so much so that people were struggling to stay upright and this lead to me and another girl ending up on the floor under the crowd, where I was being pulled up by a guy on my left but I held out my hand to the girl on the floor as she said “don’t let go” after we were both stuck under the crush of the crowd unable to stand up. I could have allowed myself to be picked up but I wasn’t going to leave her on the floor, however as I was refusing to get up without pulling her upright the crowd lifted me vertically and crowd surfed me over the front barrier and I couldn’t hold on to her hand during all of that and I don’t know if she ever got back up, I do know she was never lifted out the front as she didn’t come over the barrier and the medics couldn’t see if she got lifted out. I did also hear after the festival that year that someone died trampled under the crowd so it does stick with me that perhaps I could have done more especially if I hadn’t let the crowd push me and as a result knock me and her down under everyone so I vowed never to let that happen again, so when someone says I ruin all the fun not allowing myself and others to get knocked down by the wave of crowd then they need to look at their idea of fun, because running people down with a motor vehicle might be just as fun to them but surely going to result in injury or death and not exactly enjoyable to those getting plowed down.

The show continued with an encore resulting in wild wacky wavy arm inflatables being deployed, perhaps upstaging the band when they were fighting for attention and slapping them in the face every time they tied to get up front and center, but it made part of the show just the same.

All in all they put on a good show and it is definitely recommended if you get the chance on the upcoming tour to go see either pretty reckless or stone sour while they are on tour.